Making sure that transportation networks are able to bring school students safely to and from their campuses each day is critical to many aspects of society at large.  For public school students who are eligible to choose their school through a lottery system, impractical commutes deny students the opportunity to take full advantage of the public school lottery system.  Furthermore, supplemental school services are inherently inefficient when evaluated using standard system performance metrics.  I developed a methodology for MDOT MTA to evaluate these services by considering not only the impact to the agency’s operational budget but also the impact to student commute times in the absence of these extra trips. 

School transportation planning for private schools also has many of the same challenges.  For parents, the time their child spends on a school bus is additional time for the parents to be at work or to do tasks at home; many parents view school as a “babysitter” of sorts, and this extends to the school bus as well.  Finally, while every commuter is only willing to travel so far each day, there are some specific conditions that do not necessarily apply to other types of transportation planning.  A pedestrian crossing that may be difficult for adults may be impossible for children to use.  Elementary school students can only be on board a school bus for a very finite amount of time without access to bathroom facilities.  School bus routes must respond to these realities.  

I have experience in creating and analyzing school transportation plans for both public and private schools.  My process is transferable to any location and can also be used to determine how students who rely on school bus transportation can continue to safely use those resources as schools reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic.